- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Soil compaction
- Thread starter Kevtherev
- Start date
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Good idea.
But you can't suggest anything to them as won't listen.
The Aerway is a great machine. It's just a pity you need to sell your house to buy one. I was very impressed with it.
But you can't suggest anything to them as won't listen.
The Aerway is a great machine. It's just a pity you need to sell your house to buy one. I was very impressed with it.
- Location
- Ceredigion
There is only one of me
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Regular subsoiling with a flat lift or similar does the world of good shattering the clay subsoil.
@Clive did a feature in a magazine about DD and subsoiling
- Location
- Ceredigion
we aint got clay subsoil but plenty of barrow size boulders you can drag out
except in extreme case (muck / compost tips and gateways, cart tracks etc) I don't think there is such a thing as "compaction" it would be better described as a lack of oxygen in the soil
On some soils cultivation can be just as responsible for the lack of oxygen as traffic through the creation of fine soil particles causing a capping effect that starves the soil of oxygen. Biology aggregates soil particles to create structure, get good biology and structure improves, get good biology through increasing soil organic matter and not burning it off (oxidising) through cultivation.
if / when I have areas that need correction I cultivate shallow (2") and get something growing on it, nothing fixes "compaction" better than a plant
the only areas we have used a deep subsoiler type tool on for 6 years now is gateways and compost / muck piles, anyone is welcome to come and bring a spade here and find me some "compaction"
On some soils cultivation can be just as responsible for the lack of oxygen as traffic through the creation of fine soil particles causing a capping effect that starves the soil of oxygen. Biology aggregates soil particles to create structure, get good biology and structure improves, get good biology through increasing soil organic matter and not burning it off (oxidising) through cultivation.
if / when I have areas that need correction I cultivate shallow (2") and get something growing on it, nothing fixes "compaction" better than a plant
the only areas we have used a deep subsoiler type tool on for 6 years now is gateways and compost / muck piles, anyone is welcome to come and bring a spade here and find me some "compaction"
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solo
Member
- Location
- worcestershire
The big six row beet harvesters used to create a tight soil layer deeper than a plough pan here especially on the headlands. One aspect of growing beet I don't miss.
heavily cultivated soils like after beet or potato crops are full of fine soil particles that easily can seal air out of the soil
not crops that IMO are vert compatible with a zero-till system, if you grow them your kind of committed to cultivation if your want reliable crops
solo
Member
- Location
- worcestershire
I wouldn't have said our soils were heavily cultivated, more a case of deeper cultivated but the real issue was the sheer weight of a heavily laden harvester compressing the soil structure when wet which would then dry out to form a compacted zone in the profile. I agree that root crops require deeper loosed soil to perform their best, but at the same time this indicates that soil loosening creates a better environment for root growth. This must surely apply across all manner of plants IMO.
its very soil type dependant I guess but nothing creates what many farmers perceive as "compaction" on soil types around me more than cultivation, the fine particles fill in the gaps and create anerobic conditions for soil biology and roots. The way most fix that is to cultivate more ! its a catch 22 situation and until you stop the cultivation you're stuck on a contact (expensive) hamster wheel that is very hard to get off without having failed crops
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- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
Aerway on the front and a drill on the back and Bob's your uncle @Kevtherev
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Compaction happens by wheelings look at maize ground after harvest
Also tramlines get compacted by wheelings
Also tramlines get compacted by wheelings
solo
Member
- Location
- worcestershire
I would guess that our soils are similar. Since sugar beet left 10 years ago now I have done mainly osr,ww,ww,sb rotation with most straw removed but fym applied back. I plough only for spring barley mainly to bury manure which although composted still throws up grass seeds from silage. The rest of the crops have been planted into an 8" tine and shallow disc cultivation pass with an occasional osr crop direct drilled if conditions allow. Crop yields have generally increased and there is no plough pan evident anymore but I can't see me completely moving to no till but will use it as a possibility in some years on some fields.
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Good post Clive, I agree with you there, except it doesn't matter what you call it, the symptoms and remedies are broadly the same
I subsoil our ground otherwise we'd have lakes after heavy rain , but it isn't compacted
do you subsoil your lawn ? is it a lake ? can you take a spade full of soil from beneath a hedge row that has high SOM and hasn't seen a cultivator for 100yrs and try to "compact" it - it will be like trying to compress a sponge Im sure
you might be amazed what would happen to uncultivated soil given time, trouble is for many you cant afford to have failed crops while you wait for the change, for this reason I understand and respect why many can't see beyond deep cultivation